G'day mate,
Away from from the city and out in to nature, the Melbourne skyline was disappearing in the rear view mirror as we drove west along the coast. We were up very early to collect Noely the Nissan from Wicked campers and shot of to explore one of Australia's most famous coastlines: The Great Ocean Road.
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| Welcome to the Great Ocean Road! |
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| The 486km return journey |
We stopped at all of the sites above plus many more. Our first stops were places of interest around Lorne, including Split Point Lighthouse and Teddys Lookout. The view from the lookout was amazing; we would find this was the first of many impressive lookouts. Dannii's Welsh Teddy also made an appearance overlooking the coastline.
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| Split Point Lighthouse |
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| Teddys Lookout |
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| Welsh Teddy at Teddys Lookout |
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| Dannii looking inland at Teddys Lookout |
We did pay visits to Lorne and Apollo Bay, but we didn't stay to long on the outward journey. Instead we moved in slightly inland and the road continued through the bush.
I really enjoyed this part of the drive even though it wasn't along the coast. I absolutely love rainforest terrain and it differed to the types I had seen in New Zealand. We stopped at various unknown locations to look around whilst continuing our journey.
That night we stayed at a campsite 6km short of the Twelve Apostles. The neighbouring field hosted Kangaroos as if they were sheep and we were lost in their novelty. We managed to pull ourselves away for long enough to stroll down to the nearby beach. Other than 6 sea fishers we had the beach all to ourselves so we strolled along and watched the sunset, perhaps the most beautiful sunset I have seen this year.
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| Noelywith his hat on! |
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| Broccoli Pasta dinner set up |
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| Kangaroos! |
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| Snake tracks found on our walk |
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| Coastal Walk |
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| Perfect Sunset! |
When we returned to the campsite we found that our kangaroo neighbours were now kangaroo visitors. They had hopped across to feed around the campsite. We stayed up watching them until we hopped ourselves in to bed.
That night was insanely cold. We were using a blanket very kindly lent to us by Josh, but this plus about 6 layers of clothing was still causing us to shiver. Though we did manage to sleep a bit I was not expecting Australia to treat us in this way. In the morning we were both ready for a warm breakfast before our travels.
And our first stop, the most talked about spot on the Great Ocean Road: The Twelve Apostles. We walked there through a portion of the Great Ocean Track, a walking trail which follows the entirety of the coast.
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| Two of the twelve apostles |
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| And the other apostles |
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| In their entirety |
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| Majestic lookout solving all of lifes problems |
Wow! The lookouts on this stage of the route were incredible! And they continued to impress at Loch and Gorge just a few km down the road.
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| Snake! |
Breath-taking scenery everywhere. Even formations known as London Bridge and the Bay of Islands were fantastic landmarks across the same stretch of coast. And we were so fortunate with the weather, absolutely gorgeous :-)
On the return route we visited a wildlife sanctuary and fed the animals there, including Emus, Wallabees, Kangaroos and dear. We made some good friends here!
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| Emu |
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| Dannii and a Wallabee |
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| Me and a Dingo |
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| Me and my bezza, he wouldn't leave me alone haha! |
And afterwards we found some well known wild marsupials.
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| Koala! |
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| The cutest photo I have ever taken! |
We found the Koalas en route to Cape Otway. The lighthouse was unfortunately closed when we got there, but we still took a walk around the area until moving to our next camping spot.
Waking up with a few more hours of sleep in the bank (it wasn't quite as cold this night) we drove in to the rainforest and walked Maits Walkway. It was a short walk, though we moved slowly just watching and listening. Incredible! (I need to widen my range of adjectives...)
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| We saw what turned out to be a very rare snail |
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| Huge tree |
The drive had been amazing and between Lorne and Apollo Bay we found more of it. More wild Koalas, parrots and even Kookaburras.
I have highlighted our best bits only. If anybody reading this ever has a chance to take this route, I highly recommend it! The scenery was stunning. It's very nearly as nice as the south island of NZ! Thank you, Australia!
G'day,
Ben
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